Tuesday, June 19, 2007

As you might have noticed, the Google Adsense display on the right side the MZone page is now gone. After giving it a little test run the last couple of weeks, I've decided to do away with it.

While I am a fan of Google as they've made running this site an easy (and free!) endeavor, for the buck or two a day the MZone generated, AdSense didn't make any - especially when any post on "Ohio State" generated an ad for Ohio State tickets or something like that due to whatever keyword logarithm the program used.

And apparently the MZone wasn't/isn't alone with these sorts of AdSense issues. In checking a wide variety of other sites to see what sort of ads were generated, I noticed the same sort of "problems." For example, when I looked recently, the main AdSense ad on the liberal DailyKos was something promoting right wing firebrand Ann Coulter and getting her column sent to you for free each day. Oops.

While I know how/why it happens, it doesn't seem like AdSense ads reach the right audience. And I felt the same here at the MZone.

Now, don't get me wrong, this wasn't strictly some moral choice. If AdSense was generating a thousand bucks a day, you'd be looking at the smiling face of Woody Hayes right under our logo. But at $1.32, I can't even stand to see the single line with the word "Ohio State" in it.

Oh well, no more steak dinners at the MZone office parties.

Free Business Idea to Smart MZone Reader: I have to think if somebody could come up with a program to solve this "glitch," there could be some big money involved (probably more than $1.32 a day). There has to be a way to figure out that just because, say, a pro-life site mentions a abortion, it doesn't mean you try to advertise family planning clinics and NOW memberships to its readers.

In Adsense there is a feature called "Competitive Ad Filter" - you can add however many websites you want to this list and they will never show up. It isn't a perfect science because it isn't keyword based (ie Ohio State). What you can do is let Adsense run and whenever you see a website promoting something Ohio State or whatever related block that URL.

Not to really get off topic but you can always put up banners and ads from an affiliate service like Linkshare or CJ. You can have an ad for any product you want - even a Desmond Howard jersey...then if/when someone buys it you get a commission on each sale. Usually 10%. Or you can put up ads like paul suggested. I already offered to pay for an ad spot a couple of times for my website http://www.collegefootballfanatics.com

Paul, I'm a Gamecock fan and I've seen plenty of rabid (but otherwise very polite and fun people) UGA fans through the years. I wonder if any would pay $30-$35 for a piece of bronzed UGA VI shit. Remember, you heard it here first.

I ditched adsense a long time ago, when justgreattickets.com and stubhub contacted me about buying adspace on my blog. I make much more with them than I ever did with adsense. Oh, and I had the same problems with adsense advertising UCLA crap on my site.

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